Increasing attention is being paid to the possibility of applying cancer chemopreventive agents for individuals at high risk of neoplastic development. For this purpose by natural compounds have practical advantages with regard to availability, suitability for oral application, regulatory approval and mechanisms of action. Candidate substances such as phytochemicals present in foods and their derivatives have been identified by a combination of epidemiological and experimental studies. Plant constituents include vitamin derivatives, phenolic and flavonoid agents, organic sulfur compounds, isothiocyanates, curcumins, fatty acids and d-limonene. Examples of compounds from animals are unsaturated fatty acids and lactoferrin. Recent studies have indicated that mechanisms underlying chemopreventive potential may be combinations of anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune-enhancing, and anti-hormone effects, with modification of drug-metabolizing enzymes, influence on the cell cycle and cell differentiation, induction of apoptosis and suppression of proliferation and angiogenesis playing roles in the initiation and secondary modification stages of neoplastic development. Accordingly, natural agents are advantageous for application to humans because of their combined mild mechanism. Here we review naturally occurring compounds useful for cancer chemprevention based on in vivo studies with reference to their structures, sources and mechanisms of action.

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  Small intestine epithelial cell lines (TR-SIE), which are established from the small intestine of transgenic rats harboring temperature-sensitive simian virus 40 large T-antigen gene (tsA58 Tg rat), were used to characterize the mRNA expression of small intestine transporters. TR-SIE cells had a polygonal morphology and expressed cytokeratin protein and villin mRNA. Although the large T-antigen was strongly expressed at 33°C, this was reduced at 37 and 39°C. Concomitantly, the cell growth was arrested at 37 and 39°C compared with that at 33°C, suggesting that TR-SIE cells are conditionally immortalized cell lines. RT-PCR analysis revealed that TR-SIE cells expressed ABCB1 (mdr1a and mdr1b), ABCB4 (mdr2), ABCC2 (mrp2), ABCC6 (mrp6), ABCG1, ABCG2 (bcrp/mxr), Slc21a7 (Oatp3), Slc15a1 (PepT1), and Slc16a1 (Mct1). Conditionally immortalized rat small intestine epithelial cell lines were established from tsA58 Tg rats and expressed the mRNA of intestinal transporters.

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  The purpose of this study was to investigate the transport mechanism of tolbutamide across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) using MBEC4 cells as an in vitro BBB model.
   Methods: The BBB transport of tolbutamide was studied by using a mouse brain capillary endothelial cell line, MBEC4, cultured on dishes with their luminal membrane facing the culture medium.
   Results: The uptake of [¹⁴C]tolbutamide by MBEC4 cells was dependent on temperature and energy. The uptake coefficient of [¹⁴C]tolbutamide increased markedly with decreasing pH of the external medium from neutral to acidic. Valinomycin and replacement of chloride with sulfate or gluconate significantly increased the initial uptake of [¹⁴C]tolbutamide, while replacement with nitrate significantly decreased it. The uptake was significantly reduced by a proton ionophore, FCCP, and an anion-exchange inhibitor, DIDS. The initial uptake of [¹⁴C]tolbutamide was saturable with Kt of 0.61±0.03 mM (pH 7.4) and 1.76±0.19 mM (pH 6.5). At pH 6.5, the initial uptake of [¹⁴C]tolbutamide was significantly reduced by several sulfa drugs, salicylic acid, valproic acid and probenecid, and was competitively inhibited by sulfaphenazole (Ki=3.47±0.50 mM) and valproic acid (Ki=2.29±0.43 mM).
   Conclusion: These observations indicate the existence of a pH- and membrane-potential-dependent anion exchange and/or proton-cotransport system(s) for concentrative uptake of tolbutamide and sulfa drugs in MBEC4 cells.

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  Limited systematic data on herb-drug interaction are available, despite many opportunities to concomitant use of herb with prescribed drugs. We investigated the effects of 15 herbal extracts in dietary supplements on CYP2C9, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 activities in human liver microsomes. Strong inhibition of these CYP activities was found by the addition of green tea extracts (GTE) or grape seed extracts (GSE) in vitro. To examine the effects of these extracts on CYP3A activities in vivo, the pharmacokinetics of midazolam (MDZ) was analyzed in rats. Although single treatments with these extracts had negligible effects, 1 week of treatment with them resulted in a significant increase in the ke of intravenously administered MDZ, indicating the induction of CYP3A in the liver. In contrast, 1 week of treatment with GTE, but not GSE, caused a significant increase in the C_max and AUC_0-∞ of orally administered MDZ without change in the t_1/2, suggesting a reduction in CYP3A activity in the small intestines. These studies indicate that subchronic ingestion of GTE or GSE may alter the pharmacokinetics of MDZ, and the effects of GTE on CYP3A activity appear opposite between liver and small intestine, which could not be predicted from in vitro experiments.

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  The role of selenium-binding protein (SeBP), which has a high ability to associate with acetaminophen (AAP), on the cytotoxicity of AAP was studied. To clarify this issue, we examined the cytotoxic effect of AAP using COS cells stably expressing SeBP. Expression of SeBP enhanced the susceptibility of the cells to AAP-induced cytotoxicity. Several clones of SeBP-expressed COS cells were obtained, and they exhibited different degrees of susceptibility toward AAP. It was found that there is an inverse correlation between the expression level and the cell viability (r=-0.872). On the other hand, no increase in toxicity was observed in the SeBP-expressed cells treated with N-acetyl-p-quinone imine (NAPQI), which is an active metabolite of AAP. These results show that SeBP is an important factor in AAP hepatotoxicity. Moreover, our data suggest that the toxic mechanism of AAP differs from that of NAPQI.

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  The binding properties of the disulfide covalent bond between N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and human serum albumin (HSA) were investigated. HSA, purified from either healthy subjects or renal failure patients, was incubated with NAC in buffer and analyzed by 4VP-EG-Me column chromatography, which can distinguish between the redox states of the only free thiol of HSA. Although intact HSA was found to consist of mainly three sub-types, marcaptoalbumin (HMA), cysteine-bound nonmercaptoalbumin (HNA_Cys) and a further oxidized form (HNA_oxy), the formation of a new type of nonmercaptoalbumin (HNA_NAC) was confirmed after incubation with NAC. Interestingly, NAC rapidly dissociated Cys from HNA_Cys and NAC itself bound very slowly to HSA. These findings suggest that the interaction between NAC and HSA proceeds in a 2-step processes. The first-order binding and dissociation rate constants of NAC to healthy HSA (k_on,NAC) and Cys from healthy HNA_Cys (k_off,Cys) were approximately 0.0032 and 1.3 (h^-1), respectively. On the other hand, HSA from renal failure patients showed decreased HMA and increased HNA_Cys. The k_on,NAC and k_off,Cys were 0.0094 and 0.45 (h^-1), respectively, suggesting that the pathological state may affect the binding properties of HSA and NAC.

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  Using competitive allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization with immunochromatographic strip (CASSOH), we have developed a simplified method for the detection of eight polymorphisms that are especially important in the identification of drug responders or non-responders and patients at increased risk of drug toxicity. The genotyping method is unambiguously determined by the presence or the absence of visible purple lines on the immunochromatographic strip, and results are obtained within 5 min after PCR. This method is rapid, highly sensitive, simplified, and should be suitable for point-of-care genotyping in clinical settings.

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  Twenty genetic variations, including seven novel ones, were found in the human SLC22A1 gene, which encodes organic cation transporter 1, from 116 Japanese individuals. The novel variations were as follows: -94C>A in the 5′-untranslated region (A of the translation start codon is numbered +1 in the cDNA sequence; MPJ6_OC1001), 350C>T (MPJ6_OC1004), IVS1-35T>C (MPJ6_OC1006), 561G>A (MPJ6_OC1010), IVS6+75C>G (MPJ6_OC1014), IVS8+108A>G (MPJ6_OC1017), and 1671_1673delATG (MPJ6_OC1020). The frequencies were 0.082 for IVS1-35T>C, 0.022 for IVS6+75C>G, 0.009 for 561G>A, and 0.004 for the other 4 variations. Among them, 350C>T resulted in the amino acid substitution Pro117Leu, which is located in the large extracellular loop between transmembrane domains 1 and 2. Also, we detected the four previously reported nonsynonymous variations, 123C>G (Phe41Leu), 480C>G (Phe160Leu), 1022C>T (Pro341Leu), and 1222A>G (Met408Val) with frequencies of 0.004, 0.086, 0.168, and 0.810, respectively.

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  Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 is an important drug-metabolizing enzyme, and its gene is known to be highly polymorphic. Here, we report five novel nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and 65 other sequence variations detected from the gene coding for cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 in 254 Japanese subjects. Two of the novel nonsynonymous SNPs were associated with the ^*10 key SNP, C100T. Among the 65 variations, 23 were novel, including 12 SNPs in 5′-flanking, 1 in 5′-untranslated, and 10 in intronic regions.
   The nonsynonymous SNPs in the CYP2D6 gene were as follows: 73 C>T (Arg25Trp, exon 1), 972 C>T (Ala90Val, exon 2), 1611 T>A (Phe120Ile, exon 3), 1720 A>C (Glu156Ala, exon 3), 3172 A>C (Glu334Ala, exon 7). The SNPs, 73C>T, 972 C>T, 1611 T>A, 1720 A>C and 3172 A>C were linked with ^*10, ^*1, ^*10, ^*1 and ^*2, respectively.

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  Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), encoded by the AHR gene, is a transcriptional factor that induces various drug metabolizing enzymes in response to diverse endogenous and exogenous ligands. In order to identify genetic variations of the AHR gene, genomic DNA from 242 Japanese individuals was sequenced. We identified 32 single nucleotide variations, including 25 novel ones [7 were in the coding exons, 7 in the introns, 1 in the 5′-untranslated region (UTR), 5 in the 3′-UTR, 2 in the 5′-flanking region, and 3 in the 3′-flanking region] and a GGGGC repeat polymorphism (a novel microsatellite marker) in the promoter region. The novel nonsynonymous variations were 50A>C (Lys17Thr), 1202A>G (Lys401Arg), 1459A>G (Asn487Asp), and 1541T>C (Ile514Thr). The allele frequencies were 0.010 for 1459A>G (Asn487Asp) and 0.002 for the other 3 variations. Also detected in this analysis was the known nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism 1661G>A (Arg554Lys) at a 0.444 frequency.

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